Tarot Divination Key 1 the Magician

In older Tarot decks, Key 1, the Magician was typically the first card of the Major Arcana; in most modern decks, the Fool (Key 0) has replaced him at the beginning of the Major Arcana. The unknown creator of the Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript made this radical change in the symbolism of the Tarot, and Aleister Crowley and Israel Regardie spread it to the rest of the world with their publication of the Golden Dawn rituals and lessons.

This particular change, along with the revised rendering of the Magician by Pamela Colman Smith has changed the modern divination meaning of Key 1.

In the older versions of the Tarot, the Magician was a trickster, a wandering con-man, who practiced sleight-of-hand tricks for his supper. He was illusion, mischief, and cunning. These tendencies are still latent in the card, but they have been supplanted by the modern initiate's view of the Magician.

Gone are the ball and cups, simple coins and wand of the stage magician and charlatan; replaced by the symbols of the four suits of the Minor Arcana, the tools of the Magician are now more subtle. His instruments, weapons of the Art, now represent the four elements and four worlds of the Western Mystery Traditions.

Many people believe that the Magician, as well as his worldly counterparts, are an aberration forcing their will and egos upon the physical and spiritual planes of the universe. But while the Magician works and plays with the building blocks of the universe, using intention to change it, he is forever the servant of the divine.

His miracles are performed with the aid of the higher powers, the messengers of the divine. The Magician has one hand reaching up into the heavens drawing down the divine light, and another hand pointing down to the Earth manifesting the Creator's love and continuous creation of our reality.

Bill Butler suggests that the meaning of the Magician is "The ambivalence of Hermes: true or false." In the mysteries of the Western esoteric societies, Hermes is a trickster, a master of the Pillars of Enoch and Solomon, as well as a messenger of the divine and patron of thieves, the dead, sorcerers and businessmen.

As an echo of Hermes, the Magician represents one who is capable of working with all energies and forms, spiritual and material. He is a jack of all trades, able to master anything he sets his mind to.

Summary of meanings in a Tarot divination:

When adverse, the Magician represents the low cunning of a snake-oil salesman. He is a charlatan and a liar. He indicates a lack of control over one's mind and environment. When negative, the Magician is Hermes leering and laughing at the seeker.

When positive, the Magician represents the higher planes, the divine forces, materializing though the actions and thoughts of humanity. The Magician is the skilled worker refining the Prima Materia. When beneficial, the Magician is Hermes, the wise guide of the initiate who works in the path of Nature.